Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week

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Marini -> Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 9:49:27 PM)
There are so many services, programs, and things that are being cut drastically, I have decided to start my own little series of threads called, Budget Cuts. [sm=hewah.gif] It would be almost impossible to list all of the many state wide budget cuts in one thread, also there are still more budget cuts on the horizon. Today, is my first thread in my "Budget Cuts" series. [;)] Many school districts have decided to cut the school week from 5 days to 4 days, to save money! Evidently, these school districts feel they can "cram" a normal 5 day school week into 4 days. I see a possibility of burn out ahead. Many parents can barely find coverage when school is out for the summer, who is going to watch the younger students on that day off? Wow, and I do mean "wow". How pathetic is this? At a time when almost everyone agrees that American students need more instructional time, not less. LA has slashed it's summer school budget from 18 million to 3 million this summer. Many other school districts have cut or slashed summer school programs also. Some school districts are not only slashing the school day, but also the school year. In CA, 600 out of the 1000 school districts have shortened the school calendar by 5 days in the past 2 years! Here is a good link on how budget cuts are whittling away the school day: School budgets trimmed, shortened school days What does the immediate future hold for the average public school system? 4 day a week school for 6 months, with no summer school? Where does it end? I am surprised more parents of students are not up in arms and protesting these cuts. More young people with more time out of school, in school districts that usually have the students that need more academic programs, tutoring, after school programs and activities, not less!!! Can you imagine some of the "trouble" some of the older little flowers will get into on that day off? Oh I am sure most will spend the extra day off studying all day! I guess these cuts will help prepare the next generation for higher education and for the jobs of the future. {Or should I say the ones that will be able to get a job in the future} hummmm

willbeurdaddy -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 9:57:50 PM)
Interesting that you dont bother to talk about the 1000s of districts that are expanding their schedules from the same article. If people spent more time examining why some schools/districts manage their money better instead of whining about closures in districts that may well be pissing theirs away, maybe things would improve everywhere.

Marini -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 10:05:30 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Interesting that you dont bother to talk about the 1000s of districts that are expanding their schedules from the same article. If people spent more time examining why some schools/districts manage their money better instead of whining about closures in districts that may well be pissing theirs away, maybe things would improve everywhere. No I didn't, glad you read it willb. I will make the point, that the school districts with the most drastic cuts appear to be in the same school districts that can LEAST afford these cuts!!! I hope you also read about the marvelous, wonderful and dedicated teachers that are working for FREE this summer in a summer school program in Brandon, SD!! [sm=line.gif][sm=line.gif]

willbeurdaddy -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 10:09:16 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Marini quote: ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Interesting that you dont bother to talk about the 1000s of districts that are expanding their schedules from the same article. If people spent more time examining why some schools/districts manage their money better instead of whining about closures in districts that may well be pissing theirs away, maybe things would improve everywhere. No I didn't, glad you read it willb. I will make the point, that the school districts with the most drastic cuts appear to be in the same school districts that can LEAST afford these cuts!!! Least afford in what respect? Dont try to claim that $ = quality in education, it doesnt. The ones who have to make the most drastic cuts are likely to be the ones that are the least efficient.

Marini -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 10:12:35 PM)
Poor willb, you want to believe that. You know it's not true, pick a better spin. This is just too easy, like taking candy from a willbe. State budget cuts hurting students in poor school districts Public school budget cuts hurt poor and disadvantaged more CA poor children hit hard by budget cuts Seattle budget cuts hit poor children Gap Between rich and poor schools growing in NC I could post a thousand links stating HOW school budget cuts ARE drastically and disproportionately affecting poor school districts harder than richer school districts.

Termyn8or -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 10:15:32 PM)
I don't know about this. Our academics level is not quite up to snuff, maybe we should pay less. T^T

KeriB -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/6/2011 10:51:30 PM)
Paying less won't solve the problem. Neither will paying more. What we do need is for people to come together and care about the future of our students and Country. quote: ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Least afford in what respect? Dont try to claim that $ = quality in education, it doesnt. The ones who have to make the most drastic cuts are likely to be the ones that are the least efficient. As for what you say here, money does make a difference and no the districts that are making the cuts are not always least efficient. There is this little thing called State funding and when the legislature decides to cut the funding for the school on top of already cutting new pupil spending it makes the districts have to make drastic cuts. The other thing here is that most districts get money from the housing tax base, so if house prices drop then the amount of money the schools has drops also. Very few districts are not having to make budget cuts somewhere, it is the nature of public education in the current economy.

mefisto69 -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 1:49:52 AM)
The greatest part of every school budget is salary and benefits. Right from the top - Superintendent and all other Admin should take at least 20% cuts in pay and benefits...... they're WAAAAAAAAY over paid for being note passers. The teachers.... freeze on pay for 5 years and they should be paying a much larger percentage of their OWN health care and pension packages just like..... oh, I dont know....... the rest of the citizens ? ( those that actually get any of that) Of course...... there are too many sports programs but - how do you help cover up the dumbed down education system if you can't keep the kids busy?

joether -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 2:28:00 AM)
Dont know if its funny or sad: That budget cuts will affect millions of families across the country. Many will lose their jobs. Most students will slip further behind their international counter-parts in science & mathematics. Not to mention the host of other measures taking place that will effect everything from road maintence to air traffic controllers. All so we dont tax the upper 2% of American income earners. That's right, while millions suffer across the board in all sorts of new and unpleasent hardships....the filthy rich will not be burderned any further, while they contuine to be richer. An as they get richer, the rest of us will become poorer. Maybe we'll become like Chile, in which 1% of the country owns & controls 99% of the action. At that point, the US Constitution wont even be worth the paper its on. When the rich decide to ban firearms (cus they dont want a peon uprising, right?), they'll do it in such a way that all those conservative nutjobs will simply hang them over without a ounce of fight (they will have been conditioned to believe the rich 'knows best'). Just keep voting those useless Republicans into office folks, and help the country into oblivion.

Musicmystery -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 4:54:53 AM)
quote: The greatest part of every school budget is salary and benefits. The greatest part of EVERY operation's budget is labor. Education is not unique in this respect.

DarkSteven -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 5:20:11 AM)
What the HELL? Schools exist to provide an education. To make effective cuts the idea should be to make cuts that reduce the delivered product (education) LESS than the amount of the cuts. Schools' expenses go for teachers, for administration, for payment on the buildings. The article NOWHERE mentioned cuts in the administration. The obvious choice would be to reduce administrators to a four day week and make then rotate which days they take off, so that each day they are 80% staffed. And then the teachers would teach five days a week as before. The cuts as implemented will reduce expenditures by maybe 10% and the amount of education provided by 20%. (Note - I wanted to reread the cited article to verify that the school days were not lengthened but was not permitted to open the link a second time.)

NeedToUseYou -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 5:32:54 AM)
I don't know, I have mixed feelings on education in the US, at least the education I've been exposed to. First, about half the teachers I had in junior high, high school and college, didn't do anything to deserve more respect than a janitor. I had a drunk US history teacher, that literally just showed slides, and movies, and at the end of the class assigned reading material. He never extrapolated, never really taught, literally I could have skipped the class read the book and received an equivalent education, others weren't as bad, but still you could tell, this was simply a job. On the other hand, I've had a few good teachers, that were interested, and did actually try to "explain", and add value outside the book. So, hrmmm, imo, the system needs a better way of removing the non-teaching teachers, or else it does not matter how much money is dumped on the problem. Also, the administrators get paid far more than the teachers, in some areas they get paid far far more. I don't really see why. Also, at least a big thing around here that has me irked, is we built this cathedral they call a school, it's massive, super pretty, and expensive as all hell. I don't really see why a high school needs to be nicer than a business in town. Schools aren't churches, they are supposed to be a functional thing. So, if the schools around here coming crying for cash, I won't support it. On top of it, isn't it about time for education to evolve anyway, really there is no reason to shuffle all the kids to school everyday anymore. The internet, can easily replace at least a couple days a week, especially for course like US history, World History, Spanish, Sociology, as in classes that are mostly just rote memory. I'd just assign prerecorded classes to watch, then the kids come in three days a week and get tested, ask any questions they might have, and send them on their merry way. For courses like math, biology, physics, etc... Well a teacher is more useful, IMO, but still some of that could be done from videos explaining basic concepts, then coming in for question answer time. Overall, I don't think the solution to education is more of the same, I'd prefer to watch videos of an excellent teacher, or be able to select any number of videos explaining a concept from a number of teachers on the web that I could watch over, or pause, or rewind, or watch a different explanation than be stuck with the current gamble of possibly getting a good teacher or bad, and just be shit out of luck if I happened to get a bad one. Sure, you can still have a school, but is it really even necessary anymore for them to go over everything? I'd think a better use of teachers would be answering questions after the students already watched the videos and read the book. Just maybe? It'd be cheaper though, and for someone like me it would have been vastly better in some classes, and I think it would be better for almost everyone. For example, a Geology class, on the website would have 20 teachers record their method of teaching about plate tectonics or whatever. If the kid doesn't get how one teacher is explaining it, no big deal he can watch it again or watch another one, if he still doesn't get it, well, he still goes to a physical school a few days a week, and he can ask there, or ask a live geology teacher to help online. Seems far superior to me. DOWN WITH THE SCHOOLS.....[:D] Up with the internet. DOWN WITH THE SCHOOLS, UP WITH THE INTERNET.

KeriB -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 10:56:47 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DarkSteven (Note - I wanted to reread the cited article to verify that the school days were not lengthened but was not permitted to open the link a second time.) In that article it did not say that the days were lengthened, but in many cases when they shorten the week they lengthen the day also.

willbeurdaddy -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 11:19:49 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Marini Poor willb, you want to believe that. You know it's not true, pick a better spin. This is just too easy, like taking candy from a willbe. State budget cuts hurting students in poor school districts Public school budget cuts hurt poor and disadvantaged more CA poor children hit hard by budget cuts Seattle budget cuts hit poor children Gap Between rich and poor schools growing in NC I could post a thousand links stating HOW school budget cuts ARE drastically and disproportionately affecting poor school districts harder than richer school districts. And I could post a thousand links that show more money doesnt improve education results.

willbeurdaddy -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 11:25:01 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: mefisto69 The greatest part of every school budget is salary and benefits. Right from the top - Superintendent and all other Admin should take at least 20% cuts in pay and benefits...... they're WAAAAAAAAY over paid for being note passers. The teachers.... freeze on pay for 5 years and they should be paying a much larger percentage of their OWN health care and pension packages just like..... oh, I dont know....... the rest of the citizens ? ( those that actually get any of that) Of course...... there are too many sports programs but - how do you help cover up the dumbed down education system if you can't keep the kids busy? Athletics and music programs are far more than time fillers, they develop character and teamwork in the former case, and further brain development and math abilities in the latter case. Those arent the problem, the problem is the touchy feely "blah blah culture", "sex blah blah" , "pick your favorite group history" etc courses that eat into the day. Mainstreaming and forced diversity are also counterproductive, holding back the high achievers far more than they benefit the mainstreamed groups.

willbeurdaddy -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 11:28:51 AM)
Meanwhile in Atlanta nationally honored programs and superintendent, and a bunch of principals, administrators and teachers have admitted to cheating to raise test scores. One kid who answered questions randomly passed, another who couldnt read passed a reading test. They erased the kids' answers and corrected them.

Marini -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 11:57:48 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: joether Dont know if its funny or sad: That budget cuts will affect millions of families across the country. Many will lose their jobs. Most students will slip further behind their international counter-parts in science & mathematics. Not to mention the host of other measures taking place that will effect everything from road maintence to air traffic controllers. All so we dont tax the upper 2% of American income earners. That's right, while millions suffer across the board in all sorts of new and unpleasent hardships....the filthy rich will not be burderned any further, while they contuine to be richer. An as they get richer, the rest of us will become poorer. Maybe we'll become like Chile, in which 1% of the country owns & controls 99% of the action. At that point, the US Constitution wont even be worth the paper its on. When the rich decide to ban firearms (cus they dont want a peon uprising, right?), they'll do it in such a way that all those conservative nutjobs will simply hang them over without a ounce of fight (they will have been conditioned to believe the rich 'knows best'). Just keep voting those useless Republicans into office folks, and help the country into oblivion. I read the links I posted, and I think it is a damn shame that many of the public schools are coming to this. Classes with between 30-40 young people in them, how do you teach 38 kids all on a different level???

LaTigresse -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 12:04:45 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Marini quote: ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Interesting that you dont bother to talk about the 1000s of districts that are expanding their schedules from the same article. If people spent more time examining why some schools/districts manage their money better instead of whining about closures in districts that may well be pissing theirs away, maybe things would improve everywhere. No I didn't, glad you read it willb. I will make the point, that the school districts with the most drastic cuts appear to be in the same school districts that can LEAST afford these cuts!!! I hope you also read about the marvelous, wonderful and dedicated teachers that are working for FREE this summer in a summer school program in Brandon, SD!! Free???? Ahhhhhhh, the three teachers I know personally, get paid year round. Even on summer break.

Marini -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 12:17:34 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LaTigresse quote: ORIGINAL: Marini quote: ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Interesting that you dont bother to talk about the 1000s of districts that are expanding their schedules from the same article. If people spent more time examining why some schools/districts manage their money better instead of whining about closures in districts that may well be pissing theirs away, maybe things would improve everywhere. No I didn't, glad you read it willb. I will make the point, that the school districts with the most drastic cuts appear to be in the same school districts that can LEAST afford these cuts!!! I hope you also read about the marvelous, wonderful and dedicated teachers that are working for FREE this summer in a summer school program in Brandon, SD!! Free???? Ahhhhhhh, the three teachers I know personally, get paid year round. Even on summer break. Yes, LaT, this particular program was CUT because of the budget, but the teachers and administrators went ahead and worked for free this summer! This is the only group of teachers doing this, as far as I know. They wanted the summer program to continue, and will not be paid for working the summer program. I thought that was wonderful and showed for them, it really is not all about money! Budgets are trimmed, classes are shortened

LaTigresse -> RE: Budget Cuts/ Thousands of School districts going to 4 day school week (7/7/2011 12:19:49 PM)
My point is that most teachers get a paycheck year round........hense the work would not be for free. A teacher's pay is based upon an annual salary, not an hourly wage. Therefor they are not working for free.

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